Peter Yeung10 June 2015 • 12:42pm

Take an exclusive look at the musical adaptation of Rufus Norris’s award-winning play about the 2006 Ipswich murders

There was huge potential for controversy when English director Rufus Norris decided to make a musical about the serial murders of sex workers that shook Suffolk in 2006. But instead of focusing directly on those traumatic events, Norris's play highlighted the uplifting story of the coming together of the local Ipswich community, and went on to have two sell-out runs at the National Theatre.

As with the theatre production, the film – which features an ensemble cast including Olivia Colman, Tom Hardy, Kate Fleetwood and Anita Dobson – was made with the participation of the real-life inhabitants of Ipswich's London Road (the street where the murderer Steve Wright lived). Using “verbatim” style, it quotes directly from interviews that scriptwriter Alecky Blythe had with them, while composer Adam Cork, as he reveals in the featurette, wrote music according to their actual speech patterns.

“If I become really extreme about the transcription of these recordings,” explained Cork, “I can I actually write down the tune of the words. Because when we all speak, we hit particular pitches... which yields something almost like melody.”

The film itself is a highly inventive creation, exploring the varying emotions of the townsfolk – from paranoid suspicion to empowering togetherness – via the passionate chorus of Colman & co.

London Road premieres on June 9 via NT Live and is on general release from June 12. Visit londonroadfilm.co.uk for more information